Motto
Since hearing it on the season finale of White Lotus, I've found the fake Buddhist monk's phrase "There is no resolution" a comfort. Sometimes it's nice to just acknowledge that trying to reason through a thing is a weight that can be sloughed off.
Reading
I enjoyed reading Taffy Brodesser-Akner's article "This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write” and these two quotes stood out:
I realized, suddenly, that there was no future in which I would know enough Holocaust to move on from it. What the education was asking of me was to not move on. Not ever.
So here it is, an old Jewish story about the Holocaust and a man who somehow survived the pernicious, organized and intentional genocide of the Jews. But right behind it, just two generations later, is another story, one about the children and grandchildren who have been so malformed by the stories that are their lineage that some of them made just as eager work of running from it, only to find themselves, same as anything you run from, having to deal with it anyway.
Donald Knuth
This interview was linked somewhere else for the productivity advice provided: "my scheduling principle is to do the thing I hate most on my to-do list. By week’s end, I’m very happy." But I also like Knuth's other observations:
A person’s success in life is determined by having a high minimum, not a high maximum. If you can do something really well but there are other things at which you’re failing, the latter will hold you back. But if almost everything you do is up there, then you’ve got a good life. And so I try to learn how to get through things that others find unpleasant.
My life would not be complete if it was all about cut and dried things. The mystical things I don’t understand give me humility. There are things beyond my understanding.
In mathematics, I know when a theorem is correct. I like that. But I wouldn’t have much of a life if everything were doable. This knowledge doesn’t tear me apart. Rather, it ensures I don’t get stuck in a rut.
Cooking
Ever since coming across Dead Greg's recipes on TikTok, I've been wanting to try the Gourmet Grilled Cheese with Christian and the kids. This week I finally did, and it was as good as they said! Really charming story here.
Postcards
This week, no more snow, the lawn is raked, the green is coming up. But just last Saturday, the evening walk looked like this:
The still stunning milkweed.
And this was captured at a moment when a cloud shadow fell across the trees on the other side of the river and highlighted the gold tones in the grass nearby.
